[Update 2.4] Reworked Lost Temple & Balance Changes

Changes to the Lost Temple Map

Mikhail Ivanov, Level Designer, explains the reasons behind the main changes on the Lost Temple map.

What has changed on the Lost Temple map? Have developers introduced strategic areas for different vehicle types?

The map has been reworked, taking into account the changes made to the other maps. We modified this map in order to divide it into strategic areas for different vehicle types. The issue with the previous variant of Lost Temple was the lack of variability: you either headed to the central square, or hid in the hills over the river trying to shoot enemies in the town and remain unnoticed. Draws were quite frequent on this map, as well as pushing towards the hills and bushes in search of the last remaining enemy. First of all, we reworked the town and the temple: we introduced clearly marked blocks of houses in the town, while the shape of the square itself remained unchanged. As before, if you’re quick and brave, you can mount the stairs and rattle your enemy’s nerves by only exposing the well armoured parts of your turret or roller, while your allies swoop around the flank, manoeuvring along new blocks of houses. We have changed terrain over the river and added several bridges in order to take the gameplay for fast vehicles to a new level: now they will not only be able to run circles around enemies, but also jump down onto them.

Will you add weather effects to this map?

We have reworked the colour palette of the map together with the strategic areas: the location has become brighter and sunnier, with the roofs of houses shining in the sun, and flecks of light on the river illuminating the landscape. The map has become sunny, but the fog still lingers over the river. However, no rain is expected. The artists did an amazing job! Soon enough you’ll be able to see it with your own eyes.

Will you fix the bug with slow tanks drowning in the river?

On the previous version of the map,many players considered the river to be an insurmountable barrier, and soft terrain forced slow vehicles to turn around to reach the town. Now the riverbed and the terrain have become more solid; that will, for sure, have a positive effect on battle dynamics.

Every month more powerful iOS and Android devices appear. Will you introduce HD-textures or new models for such devices?

The level of map details has been improved considerably: we added more objects, textures have become clearer. And owners of powerful devices will be happy to see some colourful decoration around the town, which is unavailable on less powerful devices.

We also prepared a gif-animation for you that illustrates the updates on the minimap:

Map screenshots:

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Balance Improvements

In anticipation of numerous balance improvements in the upcoming version, we talked to Andrew Panasiuk, Lead Game Balance Designer, World of Tanks Blitz. He shed some light on why the changes happened and the effect they have on the game process.

Andrew Panasiuk, Lead Game Balance Designer, World of Tanks Blitz.

Why did you decide to remove some guns and other modules?

We would like to make the upgrade process easier for new players and to gradually reveal the value of different modules to them. The modules we removed were too weak for a few particular tanks.

There is the following description in the release notes: “It will be easier to upgrade Tier II-III vehicles now: we have removed excessive modules (for Tier II vehicles: all additional suspensions and engines, for Tier III vehicles: only additional suspensions)”. Will players who have mounted these modules receive any compensation, and what modules will be mounted after removing the obsolete modules?

Yes, players will receive compensation for the removed modules. Top engines and suspensions will become the stock ones, retaining their high performance.

Weak guns or guns leading to ambiguous vehicle behaviour patterns have been removed from the module trees of some vehicles: What guns will be mounted to replace them? Will players receive any compensation? What is meant by “ambiguous vehicle behaviour patterns”? How are these patterns defined?

Removed guns will be replaced by the most powerful of the researched guns. Ambiguous vehicle behaviour patterns means, for example, that the player has a choice of 2 guns with different gameplay styles like a machine gun and a main gun, but the main gun is much more powerful. In such cases, the machine gun could be removed to prevent inexperienced players from using it.

Does it mean that there are other unbalanced guns with “obsolete” or “weak” modules, and the high-tier vehicles will also be rebalanced?

These changes don’t have any relation to high-tier vehicles. But there may be some changes to high tier vehicles in the future, aimed to increase the performance of stock modules.

The T18 is a powerful vehicle for its tier, but its terrain resistance and traverse speed have been rebalanced. Will this tank undergo any other improvements? The T18 is considered to be a seal clubbing vehicle.

We removed top engines for the T18, leaving only the stock one, so terrain resistance and traverse speed have been rebalanced to compensate for the lost characteristics.

Many parameters of low-tier vehicles have been increased. Does it mean that the developers want to increase the game dynamics for low-tier vehicles and to attract more attention to them?

Parameters have been rebalanced to compensate for removed modules. So the changes will hardly be noticeable to tankers who played with these vehicles before.

Low-tier vehicles are not very popular among players. Why did you decide to rebalance low-tier vehicles instead of vehicles of Tier VII and higher?

Changes are intended to make the game easier to understand for new players.

A gun from the VK 30.01 H - 7,5 cm Kw.K. 40 L/43 has been added to the D.W. 2. When the player transfers to the next tank after the D.W.2, will this gun be available to the player? Why has this gun been mounted on this tank?

Yes, the gun will remain available. In World of Tanks PC this tank has preferential matchmaking (tier 4-5) to compensate for its weak armament, while other Tier IV tanks (except for light tanks) are allocated to battle tier 4-6. However, in World of Tanks Blitz all researched Tier IV tanks are allocated to battle tier 4-5, so this tank has been begging for a rebalance for quite a long time, and after introducing the Pz. IV A to the same tier, such rebalancing has become necessary.

Pz.Kpfw. 38 (t) Ausf. G suspension has been removed for the Pz.Kpfw. 38 (t). Won’t this reduce its maneuverability, or have an overall negative effect on the performance of this tank in light of the reduced terrain resistance for Pz.Kpfw. 38 (t) Ausf. E suspension? The same question concerns other tanks with removed obsolete suspensions.

Terrain resistance and traverse speed parameters from the top suspension have been used.

What would be ideal gameplay for Tier II, III, and IV tanks? What was the developer’s intention while making balance improvements to these vehicles?

Tier II-IV vehicles have a wide variety of guns: machine guns, autocannons, small and large caliber guns, short- and long- barrelled guns. We decided to provide each group with distinctive parameters for their accuracy, rate of fire, etc.

Why did you remove the 2 cm Flak 38 gun from the Pz.Kpfw. III?

2 cm Flak 38 у Pz.Kpfw. III was removed because it is a machine gun and is no longer relevant for this tank, but an inexperienced player who was familiar with machine guns on lower tiers, may decide to mount this machine gun instead of using the more powerful stock gun. As a result, the player will get a low-performing tank.

Will elite tanks retain their status after their modules have been removed/replaced, if the player unlocked all their modules?

Yes, they will.

What should we expect from the Japanese tanks in terms of gameplay? Will it be something unique or is there something similar already?

We have introduced an interesting automatic loader for Tier VII. High-tier tanks could be compared to the branch of American medium tanks: these tanks, including the remarkable top tank, feature well-angled armour.